Shipping household goods to Indonesia.

[Goldstar]

Hi all, I’ve been a member on this forum for a while now but this is my first posting so be gentle with me !

Firstly a bit about me. I am a Kitap holder (British Passport) and my wife is an Indonesian citizen I have lived and worked here since 2007. Since I retired my wife is now my sponsor rather than my previous employer.

My dear Mum passed away in England recently so as her last remaining relatives my wife and I travelled to England to arrange her funeral and clear her house etc.

Most of the contents were either sold or given to charity’s but there were certain personal items that we wanted to keep and send to Jakarta.

We engaged an International removals company to quote a price to deliver to our address in Jakarta door to door and they collected the stuff from the house, about 2 cubic meters In total consisting mainly of photographs books and ornaments, all worthless to anyone except ourselves for sentimental reasons.

We are now back in Jakarta however the shipping agent here is saying we cannot import these items unless I have a work visa and the shipment is likely to be re exported ?

Can anyone with any knowledge of Indonesia customs regulations please advise the best way to handle this
problem ? and / or recommend an agent to smooth our shipment through Tanjung Priok ?

Many Thanks, Steve and Oki.

 

[Hawk256]

Hi all, I’ve been a member on this forum for a while now but this is my first posting so be gentle with me !

Firstly a bit about me. I am a Kitap holder (British Passport) and my wife is an Indonesian citizen I have lived and worked here since 2007. Since I retired my wife is now my sponsor rather than my previous employer.

My dear Mum passed away in England recently so as her last remaining relatives my wife and I travelled to England to arrange her funeral and clear her house etc.

Most of the contents were either sold or given to charity’s but there were certain personal items that we wanted to keep and send to Jakarta.

We engaged an International removals company to quote a price to deliver to our address in Jakarta door to door and they collected the stuff from the house, about 2 cubic meters In total consisting mainly of photographs books and ornaments, all worthless to anyone except ourselves for sentimental reasons.

We are now back in Jakarta however the shipping agent here is saying we cannot import these items unless I have a work visa and the shipment is likely to be re exported ?

Can anyone with any knowledge of Indonesia customs regulations please advise the best way to handle this
problem ? and / or recommend an agent to smooth our shipment through Tanjung Priok ?

Many Thanks, Steve and Oki.

Can't help you with this specifically but everything (and I mean everything) down to a box of lotions was heavily taxed before I could get the package. I expect someone from customs will have their hand out soon.

 

[gemima]

Hi all, I’ve been a member on this forum for a while now but this is my first posting so be gentle with me !

Firstly a bit about me. I am a Kitap holder (British Passport) and my wife is an Indonesian citizen I have lived and worked here since 2007. Since I retired my wife is now my sponsor rather than my previous employer.

My dear Mum passed away in England recently so as her last remaining relatives my wife and I travelled to England to arrange her funeral and clear her house etc.

Most of the contents were either sold or given to charity’s but there were certain personal items that we wanted to keep and send to Jakarta.

We engaged an International removals company to quote a price to deliver to our address in Jakarta door to door and they collected the stuff from the house, about 2 cubic meters In total consisting mainly of photographs books and ornaments, all worthless to anyone except ourselves for sentimental reasons.

We are now back in Jakarta however the shipping agent here is saying we cannot import these items unless I have a work visa and the shipment is likely to be re exported ?

Can anyone with any knowledge of Indonesia customs regulations please advise the best way to handle this
problem ? and / or recommend an agent to smooth our shipment through Tanjung Priok ?

Many Thanks, Steve and Oki.

I can't help you Op - I read a lot about shipping personal items here when I moved here and it seemed to be very difficult. I arrived with a few suitcases and shipped any personal stuff to Australia to my partner. He hand-delivered everything over the course of a year during his frequent trips to Indonesia. It was less than 2 cubic meters - probably 1 cubic meter. It was a lot less hassle than having to deal with the customs people.
I think the shipping agents feedback is probably correct - the work visa permit is also time limited to the first 6 months of you moving here and I found that difficult to arrange at the time (Im not sure if this is still the case nowadays - Ive been here 7 years).
Make sure you are proactive about the shipment - they will charge you handling fees per day they hold the items so it can end up being quite expensive. Good luck.

 

[Goldstar]

Thanks for your responses to my shipping problem, seems I might have to dig deep and pay up !

 

[farin_horsley]

Hi all, I’ve been a member on this forum for a while now but this is my first posting so be gentle with me !

Firstly a bit about me. I am a Kitap holder (British Passport) and my wife is an Indonesian citizen I have lived and worked here since 2007. Since I retired my wife is now my sponsor rather than my previous employer.

My dear Mum passed away in England recently so as her last remaining relatives my wife and I travelled to England to arrange her funeral and clear her house etc.

Most of the contents were either sold or given to charity’s but there were certain personal items that we wanted to keep and send to Jakarta.

We engaged an International removals company to quote a price to deliver to our address in Jakarta door to door and they collected the stuff from the house, about 2 cubic meters In total consisting mainly of photographs books and ornaments, all worthless to anyone except ourselves for sentimental reasons.

We are now back in Jakarta however the shipping agent here is saying we cannot import these items unless I have a work visa and the shipment is likely to be re exported ?

Can anyone with any knowledge of Indonesia customs regulations please advise the best way to handle this
problem ? and / or recommend an agent to smooth our shipment through Tanjung Priok ?

Many Thanks, Steve and Oki.

hi , Steve and Oki.

we have had experience to send our household items from abroad to Indonesia and from Indonesia to abroad. we are mixed couple too.
I could share more of our personal experience through email , if you wish, and give you the shipping companies' names which have helped us.
when we moved / sent our household to Indonesia, my husband was not employed by any companies in indonesia.




sincerely,

farin horsley

 

[dragonflieseyes]

Good luck! I was hoping to ship supplies to Indonesia for my research rather than have them shipped to the USA and then carry them with me in my luggage. I was heavily discouraged by multiple people to ship because of the heavy fees.

 

[kripik-pisang]

IT used to be that if you had a retirement visa you ould ship a 20' container of personal belongings tax free. However, that has now change and you now have to pay import duty on everything (Including stufff exported from Indonesia). I'm not sure that I was listening properly when talking to the retirement spacialist at lima jari cargo but I think he might have said that you pay 91% on everything based on its second hand value. I've just sent him a list of stuff and am waiting to hear from him what the import duty should be.

 

[Samoerai]

We, WNA and WNI, shipped our household goods (halve container), year ago, to Jakarta. To avoid a lot of hassle one should go to the Indonesian ambassy and obtain a surat keterangan pindah. To avoid import tax: if your wife is an Indonesian citizin who re-immigrates (see rule for that from tax office) one can import household goods tax free. Describe your household goods very detailed on a list, is my advice. If you have to pay import tax, it is some percentage of the price per m3.